2016 – the year that would not let go! We have been challenged on so many levels. As the year wanes, we allow all we have learned to filter down to our roots, giving us energy for what lies ahead. All hands and hearts will be needed more than ever in 2017 as we work actively for social justice, our commons, communities and Mother Earth.

Thank you for helping us reach our Sacred Season Campaign goals. Our expectations were modest because digital fundraising is new to us. Your beautiful response warmed our hearts.

Now we give back. Each year, Kosmos awards Seed Grants of $2500 to organizations working at the glowing edge of change. Lately, we have been particularly moved by the passionate voices of our millennial friends and their capacities to lead, experiment, and unlearn outdated thinking. Our 2017 Seed Grant theme ‘Activism for a New Era‘ reflects our confidence in young people and our belief that beyond-the-box strategies are required as we face new levels of climate and political chaos. All Kosmos Community members are eligible to apply for a Seed Grant.

You’re invited to participate in other ways too. Our Community will help determine how many grants we can award. Join our Review Team and even have a grant named in your honor! Visit the Kosmos Community page frequently for details. It will be updated January 1.

Our first live Kosmos Online Event of 2017, Activism in the New Climate takes place January 10 at 1pm EST. Please read about our exceptional panelists and how to interact with them before, during, and after the panel. The event is free for all members.

Closing out the year, we offer a selection of essays by millennial authors from the current edition of Kosmos Journal. We also send warm wishes to our friends around the world for a new year that refreshes your courage, optimism and determination. We look forward to deepening our connection with you.

Here’s to a Happy (and Hopeful) New Year!

Your Kosmos Team

Dear Reader is written by digital editor Rhonda Fabian. Please direct all inquiries to rfabian@kosmosjournal.org

Activism in the New Climate | Kosmos Panelists Share Insights

Kosmos offered a live online panel event for the Kosmos Community on January 10 2017. History-making activists from three countries and wide experience joined to discuss the outlook for activism in 2017. How does the new political climate, as well as the increasing pressures of climate chaos and exploitative and extractive practices, impact the attitudes and tactics of changemakers in the times ahead? Watch here.

2017 Kosmos Seed Grant Guidelines

Kosmos is pleased to announce the third year of the Kosmos Seed Grant initiative. Seed Grants of $2,500 will be awarded in Spring 2017 to individuals or organizations working to advance social change using new and experimental approaches to break through cultural barriers.

A protest against the National Security Agency's mass surveillance in Washington DC on Oct. 26, 2013. (Photo/asterix611 via Flickr)

Millennials and the Shifting Political Climate: A Chance for Libertarianism to Emerge

By Kristin Tate
Kosmos Journal, FALL | WINTER 2016

The 2016 presidential election has been a disaster for young people.

Between the dishonest pandering of Hillary Clinton and the perceived boorishness of Donald Trump, many millennials are stuck in no man’s land.

But the future of politics may not be as bleak as it seems. Libertarian views will likely shape the ideologies of tomorrow, and as this shift occurs, millennials will become increasingly eager to engage in the political landscape.

Polarized America. Polarized Self: A Call for Collaboration

By Rebecca Mendoza Nunziato
Kosmos Journal, FALL | WINTER 2016

I live in a polarized body. My very being is compromised by competing characteristics. Mexican-American heritage–bilingual, bicultural. College-educated millennial on need-based scholarship. Latina social justice leader in white evangelical conservative communities. Independent voter in hyperpartisan America. I have no tribe that can truly represent me; my identity lacks clarity. I am politically, ethnically, spiritually homeless.

Finding Political Understanding with a Single Question

These oft-cited drivers of sustained and meaningful change will not lead Americans to a better democracy. We do not need to call upon an external agent, an ‘Uber for American politics,’ to save us. Rather, we need to take it upon ourselves to be better communicators. It starts with asking a simple question when speaking with anyone who holds a difficult, uncomfortable view.

Before jumping to a conclusion or typecasting the person’s view into an established camp of thought, ask this question: What experiences in your life led you to that view?

America’s Dirtiest Secret: How to Take Your Power Back

By Erik Fogg
Kosmos Journal, FALL | WINTER 2016

I’ve got a dirty secret that almost nobody in America knows. You see, Americans have this very popular notion that we can’t agree on anything politically. It’s so pervasive that to suggest otherwise seems like a bit of a fairy tale. Americans of each party look upon the other with ever-increasing antipathy—so much so that almost a third of party voters see the other party as a threat to the nation.